Small town to big accomplishments: new Buffs D1 hockey coach Peter Cardasis

Colorado Buffaloes Division 1 hockey coach Peter Cardasis (back) looks on at the CU Rec Center. (Photo by Quinn Kreck/Sko Buffs Sports)

Ice hockey can create tight-knit communities that provide a place for individuals to thrive, a factor that newly-named University of Colorado Division 1 hockey head coach Peter Cardasis loves.

The community that Cardasis has found from a lifelong involvement in the sport is what has kept him coming back all these years. 

“It’s such a small community. Everybody knows everybody... And there’s this tradition of just hockey,” Cardasis told Sko Buffs Sports on Oct. 30. 

Cardasis does not come from a place where hockey is typical. He grew up in Taos, New Mexico, a small town of 6,453, and did not grow up in a hockey family. Instead, he found his passion in a different source. 

“It was kind of like ‘The Mighty Ducks’ thing. Watched it, fell in love with it. Said, ‘I want to do that,’” Cardasis said. 

Ice times were limited in such a small town, so Cardasis convinced his parents to take the two-and-a-half-hour drive down to Albuquerque just to play. Cardasis moved to Colorado in 2005 and ended up playing the highest level of youth hockey in the state, AAA with the Colorado Rampage.  

Playing AAA would pay off as he ended up playing for a few years in the Western Hockey League, a major junior league. After the WHL, he bounced around a few leagues and places for a couple of years.  

In 2015, Cardasis decided to distance himself from the sport, working regular jobs for three years before being offered his first coaching opportunity. 

“One day, Jordan Slavin called me and said, ‘Would you like to coach?’... It was one of those things that was like, let’s see how it goes,” Cardasis said. 

Slavin was the head coach of the Lady Rough Riders, an AAA girls team in Boulder that Cardasis joined as an assistant coach.

After that, Cardasis moved to the junior varsity team at East High School in Denver. He spent five years coaching at East, honing his coaching skills and better understanding how he could positively affect the culture of a team that he is responsible for. 

Cardasis was not planning on leaving East, but when it was suggested he should put his name in the running for the vacancy at CU, he went for it. 

“Couple weeks later, I got a call, and it was like, alright, kind of roll with it ... Worked out the way it should be,” Cardasis said. 

Coming to CU, Cardasis knew he had to create the culture that he values in a team, while also respecting the team’s current environment. His understanding of what a coach should be comes from his time as a player. 

“I think that good teams come from good people,” Cardasis said. “Being a good person off the ice is my biggest thing to be a good hockey team.” 

This sentiment shines through the players who are willing to accept his passionate teachings. 

“Peter is a good coach who takes care of his players and connects well with everyone,” center Roman Templeton said. 

Although Cardasis has connected with the locker room, the team has not had the start it was hoping for. CU stands at 5-10 on the season after spending all of October on the road. The time away is a factor that Cardasis had to weather. 

“Having the schedule already built for me, I can't really do anything about this. That's been the hardest adjustment,” Cardasis said. “And now that we're home, hopefully we get a little bit of a game system.”

The Buffs will now start a long homestand leading into next semester, except for one away game in Fort Collins. Cardasis believes that it can be a momentum shifter. 

The team will look to find that home advantage this Friday and Saturday against Central Oklahoma. The Buffs split the series during their trip to Oklahoma last month, with the loss coming in a shootout.

This rematch series presents the opportunity to set the tone for the upcoming homestand. 

“(Looking for) consistency. Bringing that consistency from even those losses,” Cardasis said. “You learn more from losing than you do from winning.” 

The players can feel the importance of these next few games and trust Cardasis to lead them through the rest of the season. 

“We’re starting to turn a page here for the better, and that helps when you have a passionate coach like Pete leading the way,” Templeton said. 

CU still has 16 games to go this season, giving the team plenty of time to get to where it thinks it should be. Cardasis will continue to coach with the culture-first mentality that he believes puts the best product on the ice. 

“I am part of this team. I’m not (just) coaching it,” Cardasis said. “We’re here together. We’re families.”